put me to sleep
by herwhiteknight
Summary: Post-episode 5; sacrifice!Max ending. After Max's body washes up on the shore, Chloe buries her in the woods and mourns her death alone. A month later, Chloe's grown up and now she has to confront her previous actions.


_You told her you wouldn't go back here._

Chloe pushed through the foliage, brambles catching on her bare forearms, her sleeves already rolled up in preparation. "I can't sleep, okay?" Chloe told herself, fingers whitening into a tight grip around the wooden shaft.

 _You promised her. She made you promise._

"Shut up, shut up, shut up," Chloe mumbled, striking out aimlessly with the metal blade, the heavy weight throwing her off balance, into a frozen thorn bush. Being drunk didn't help either, but it was becoming common enough that she could function in daylight without arousing suspicion. Joyce hadn't even given her a second glance when she muttered about going out for a walk. _Not like she was close enough to smell my breath or anything. She's got bigger things to worry about. Like planning a funeral._

"You shouldn't be over here," a voice caused Chloe to look up from her sorry position sprawled out on her ass.

"Oh great, now I really have had too much to drink. A deer is talking to me," Chloe grumbled, sticking the sharp end of the shovel in the frozen ground and using it to haul herself up to a standing position.

"You don't let anyone else near you," it pointed out as it trotted along beside her, phasing right through the branches and foliage that Chloe had to wrestle her way through at points, due to its density.

"I'm a grieving wreck, so tell me something I don't know."

"Max wouldn't want this of you," it stated softly, bounding ahead a few steps, causing Chloe to walk right through the damn thing, sending shivers and goosebumps up her spine.

"Max isn't here!" Chloe snarled, finally arriving in a nondescript clearing, where she grit out, "Finally," and stuck the shovel into hard-packed dirt.

"That's because you never bothered to look, Chloe," the voice spoke again, and it morphed into something softer.. more feminine.

Chloe whipped around and nearly screamed. "You can't – you're not..."

"Hi Chloe," Max grinned, and she looked exactly as Chloe remembered her. As Chloe remembered her. Because she had tried to wipe out that final memory with every bottle, every joint she could find. "You're not _really_ going to dig me up, are you?"

"I... I have to see you!" Chloe gaped, her hand starting to shake, the shovel in its grasp starting to create tiny fissures in the earth due to the minute movements.

"You _are_ seeing me. I'm right here. I've never left you," Max explained with another small smile, taking a step towards Chloe's quivering form.

"Oh.. god..," Chloe shook, hesitantly reaching her hand out to Max's image, before snatching it away and taking hold of the shovel with both hands, directing the blade into the ground with a grunt, "No. No you're.. you're not here."

"Well.. yes, I am," Max stepped around Chloe and knelt down onto the ground where Chloe was digging with blind panic. She put a palm to the earth just as Chloe brought the blade down.

Chloe actually screamed this time, dropping the shovel and stumbling back a few steps. "You're.. you're hand!"

"Chloe," Max rolled her eyes, standing up and putting both hands in the air, palms forward. "With all the dying you did, I kinda expected you to know what a _ghost_ looked like."

"G-ghost.. right, I-"

"I'm haunting my grave? Duh?" Max tapped her toe at the dent Chloe had made in the ground. When Chloe said nothing, other than to clench her fists at her sides, Max tilted her head. "You were expecting me to show up?"

"I don't know what to do without you Max," Chloe murmured, dropping to her seat by the small hole, crumbling dirt clods into a fine powder with her fingertips.

Max sat down next to her, tracing patterns into the dirt that didn't leave a mark. "I thought I told you to be strong," she accused, her harsh tone startling Chloe's gaze up from the ground.

"You're accusing me now?!" Chloe snapped, "You're the one who was selfish!"

"As I continue to be," Max gave, an inexplicable smile edging her lips, "I only said that just to see that fiery spark in your eyes one more time. Joyce told me you're not yourself anymore."

Chloe stiffened, her hand latching into the frozen ground, fingernails cutting into the dirt. "My mom.. she's.. talked to you?"

Max shrugged. "She can't see me. Not like you can. But, still, she takes her pills at night, gets empty.. and starts talking. She blames me, funnily enough. Always so intuitive – I realize where you get it now."

"Enough," Chloe inhaled sharply, rising abruptly on her long legs, causing Max to curl her arms around her steepled knees and gaze up at her with an indiscernible expression on her face. "Ghost or no, you're not the Max I fell in love with. And you're _not_ why I'm here."

"Yes I am," Max stated simply as Chloe drove the shovel through her head, breaking up the earth further. "You're digging up _my_ body right now."

"Shut up," Chloe snarled, driving the shovel in forcefully. Then again, "Shut up." And again, "Shut up, shut up, just -" _Thud._ "Shut up!"

"You found me!" Max clapped gleefully, the sound silent as water started to soak her intangible form, from the waist outwards, seeping up her pink Jane Doe shirt, and down to her black patterned Converse.

"What's happening to you?" Chloe asked in slow horror from her knees once again.

"Just trying to add some realism. You weren't there when the police found my body washed up on shore, were you? Too busy getting high or drinking your pain away?" Max tilted her head thoughtfully, "The ocean washed away the blood, of course, but I think I had a couple of gashes in my head from the rocks – here," Max tapped her forehead and a bone white, clinically clean wound appeared, about two inches long, "And maybe here?" she drew a line from the corner of her left eye down to her chin, her flesh falling open in its wake.

"S-stop!" Chloe demanded, clenching her jaw and clinging to the shovel with everything she had to keep herself from screaming further.

"I told you not to come here Chloe," Max shook her head, and Chloe watched water droplets get flung from the ends of her soaked hair. "When you first buried me, to keep me to yourself, I warned you. I asked you to let me rot here in peace."

"You – fuck! Come on, you were a fucking _deer_ then, and I was _high_ , alright? Did you really expect me to just-"

"So then why are you back?! What could you possibly gain from antagonizing the dead?!"

"I don't know – you tell me! How many times was I supposed to die Max? How many times have you saved me? And now you wont let me give you this?!" Chloe exclaimed, slamming the shovel into the ground, the handle parallel and still within her grasp.

"You're saying you wanted to die, Chloe? I was being selfish, okay-"

"And for once, I'm not!" Chloe cut her off, "Okay? So I'm really drunk right now, and I might be high, I honestly can't remember – but I _am_ thinking clearly, alright?"

"What do you mean?" Max asked, and Chloe shook her head slowly. "Chloe, answer me!"

"You're dead," Chloe let out a humorless chuckle, "My answer doesn't matter to you – you're not even here."

"Chloe-"

"Fine, fine," Chloe shrugged, "Joyce wants your body in that casket. Said there wasn't enough of William's body to bury after the accident, so she wants this, at least. Man, you should have seen her crying when they couldn't find your body first. I don't think she'd ever be that upset over me, not after-"

"Stop saying-" Max tried, but Chloe waved her off with a tired hand, picked up the shovel, and started digging tiny spoonfuls of dirt away from an uncovered patch of brown hair.

"Look, Max. I'm tired, alright?" Chloe sighed, inwardly thanking herself for the shallow hole she had buried her childhood friend in a few weeks ago. "Joyce had held off the funeral for as long as possible, hoping the police would give her more info. But they've been dead silent about this whole thing, not that I blame them. Their body just up and disappeared right under their noses. I'll have to remember Frank later."

"Because you couldn't stand leaving me alone with strangers," Max murmured.

"Because I couldn't let you go, that's right," Chloe hummed absently, bobbing her head twice aimlessly as she uncovered more of Max's face. "But I'm tired," she repeated, "And it's been almost a month since I buried you. I wont forget you.. I just.. I want to let you go."

"That's what I wanted from you all along, you know?"

"I figured," Chloe shrugged, tossing the shovel aside in favour of gently excavating hands. "Now.. would you just.. leave? I want to say goodbye in peace."

Max nodded, and she twisted back into the form of the deer before bounding soundlessly through the foliage back where they came.

"This is the last time Max," Chloe grunted as she slid her arms under Max's slimy body, the decaying process slowed slightly by the changing of the seasons. "You aren't saving me again. It's my turn to save you. And I am _not_ gonna dig you out of another grave."


End file.
